Photovoltaics in a smart home part. 2 - is it worth having?
Smart home and photovoltaics are changing the future
Electric cars, plug-in hybrids, which until recently were available only to lovers of expensive technical innovations, are becoming a solution available to everyone.
In the near future, electric car chargers will be regular elements of garages and parking spaces next to our houses. Smart Home Grenton System can easily work with a car and a charger, both in terms of charging the electric car at home at practically no cost, and using it as a battery for the whole house (vehicle-to-grid technology). Thanks to this, the house is self-reliant, and the owner doesn't have to worry about breaks in the power delivery (both planned and unplanned ones).
How a smart home works — comfort, ecology and savings in one
The production of your own electricity and the smart home's readiness for tackle unforeseen situations is a guarantee that your fridge and freezer will not defrost spoiling all their contents, and you won't have to light candles or use a flashlight to prepare dinner at night.
A smart home can control the devices internally and, for example, regulate the brightness of lighting to fit a given situation. At the same time, it will not discharge the car completely but leave at least the power equivalent of the 30 km range so that its owner can drive to work and back. Thanks to this solution, you don't have to think about everything, as it will help you with many tasks related to home management.
An intelligent house combined with photovoltaics is not only an ecological solution, but also an economic one. It is becoming even more popular as it fits in with the now popular “less waste” or “zero waste” trend which is about the effective use of raw materials.
The Smart Home Grenton system makes life easier and allows for optimal energy consumption thanks to:
* sensors that detect the presence in a given room and adapt to the situation
This is extremely important in connection to the solar panel installation.
* heating with the use of a heat pump, air conditioning and “shading”
With overproduction of electricity stored in a battery or grid, one can easily be tempted to waste these resources: leaving the lights or operating appliances on in the rooms when none of the household members are present there. The smart home system helps prevent this.
Benefits that make everyday life easier
To use the opportunities offered by having photovoltaic panels at home to their full potential, you should consider installing the Grenton Smart Home system. Here are some tasks it will handle for you:
* it will turn off the light automatically when the room is empty and turn them back on when someone goes inside; it will also turn off all the devices there, such as chargers, etc.
* it will adjust the lighting to the time of day thanks to the light sensor — it will maintain adequate brightness with minimal electricity consumption and will use daylight for as long as possible
* in case of a total power failure, it can automatically switch to energy saving mode and only activate the emergency light, i.e. selected low-power LED bulbs
* it will close / open the gate or roller shutters, when such need arises
* it will allow you to charge your electric car at home, without having to go to a charging station — and this is where every watt saved counts
How does a smart home system tame power hungry devices
Some of you probably recognize a situation when various electrical devices in the house are connected to the sockets, even though you do not use them at that time or forget to disconnect immediately after charging the battery. They use energy anyway, which absorbs approx. 10 percent of the electricity bill.
Record holders in electricity consumption include non-working laptops and microwave ovens. This is a list of devices that consume the most electricity (average value)[1]:
- Laptop — 8.9 W — PLN 40.05 per year
- Modem (cable) — 3.84 W — PLN 17.28 per year
- Microwave oven 3.08 W — PLN 13.86 per year
- Desktop computer — 2.84 W - PLN 12.78 per year
- PC screen — 1.13 W — PLN 5.09 per year
- Air conditioner — 0.9 W — cost of PLN 4.46 per year
- Phone charger — 0.26 W — cost of PLN 1.17 per year
(assuming that 1 kWh costs PLN 0.50)
